1920s Atwater Kent Breadboard Radio Comes to Life

The volunteers at the NEWSM decided that we needed more working radio equipment to make a better visitor experience. Most radios are housed in a chassis to protect the components which makes it difficult to describe how it works to a visitor. 1920s vintage Atwater Kent Breadboard radios were built on a flat piece of wood with all of the components exposed which makes it easy to show the construction and operation.  →

1948 Election Wire Recording

Peirce 260 wire recorder After the tumultuous 1948 election, someone made a political mix tape—half an hour of radio highlights from election coverage—on a small spool of very, very thin wire.  →

The Ashton Valve Company

Ashton lock valve patent, 1871 Henry Ashton, inventor of the locked "pop" safety valve, founded Ashton’s Lock Safety Valve Co. in 1871 in Boston, Massachusetts.  →

Dave, KA1EDP, contacts the Lightship Huron in Michigan.

Dave, KA1EDP, a volunteer at the New England Wireless & Steam Museum recently made a contact with the Lightship Huron in Michigan. He was using the Kenwood TS-850SAT transceiver that was recently donated by fellow volunteer, Ray Ortgiesen.  →

Exploring a Teaching Model

This article will be something of a departure from my previous ones as I will be focusing on some interesting features of an old model steam engine as opposed to restoring one.  →

The Hoag Engine Runs at Last

Photo 4. The restored Hoag engine. A horizontal, double-acting engine purchased on Ebay that was built by Harry James Hoag, Jr. provided an interesting challenge to me in trying to get it running again.  →

A Handy Miniature Mill Vise

Miniature mill vise I wasn’t aware of any suitable size mill vises that I could purchase so I decided to design and build my own – a mini-mill vise with ¾” wide jaws by about ¼” deep.  →

Rollins engine moved to the museum

This week the Rollins engine from the D. B Gurney Company in Whitman, MA was moved to the New England Wireless & Steam Museum by a dedicated crew of volunteers.  →

Restoring a Small Trunk Engine

A view of the trunk engine restored The engine shown was purchased on eBay in 2009. When it arrived I was delighted to see the detailed machining and was intrigued by the dual rotary valve arrangement where one valve controls the direction of rotation and the other controls steam into the single-acting cylinder.  →

Restoring Two Model Engines

Photo 10. Restored vertical engine with the bronze flywheel and the horizontal engine. In general there are two classes of toy steam engines: oscillators built of folded and welded sheet metal, and those that are double acting with slide valves and include cast and machined components.  →

Underhill descendants visit the museum

On July 6 we had a visit from descendants of Mr. Charles R. Underhill, author, engineer and mentor to Edwin H. Armstrong, the inventor of regenerative and superheterodyne radio circuits and FM radio.  →